Priya Patel
TLDR:
Code signing security is crucial in the development process to ensure a more secure software supply chain. Best practices include storing keys in a secure location, limiting access, rotating keys regularly, time-stamping code, checking code integrity, centralizing management, enforcing policies, and simplifying the code signing process.
Article:
Code signing security plays a critical role in building trust in the development process and enhancing the security of the software supply chain. Following the SolarWinds hack, the CA/B Forum introduced new requirements for maintaining code-signing certificates, emphasizing the use of hardware security modules (HSMs) to protect private keys. However, integrating HSMs into code-signing tools can increase complexity and maintenance demands.
Migrating to the cloud offers a solution to code signing by providing speed and agility to developers, centralized control for distributed teams, and easier monitoring by security teams. Organizations need to modernize their code signing practices by centralizing control to support development teams and integrating key security, code-signing tools, and development workflows to streamline the process.
Key best practices for enhancing code signing security include storing keys in secure locations like HSMs, controlling access through role-based access control, rotating keys regularly, time-stamping code, checking code integrity before signing, centralizing management for visibility and accountability, enforcing policies, and simplifying the code signing process by integrating with CI/CD tools.
By implementing these strategies, organizations can build trust in the development process, enable a more secure software supply chain, and ensure that code signing practices protect against malware injections, code tampering, and impersonation attacks.
